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Fresh

The Tomatometer is 60% or higher.

Rotten

The Tomatometer is 59% or lower.

Certified Fresh

Movies and TV shows are Certified Fresh with a steady Tomatometer of 75% or higher after a set amount of reviews (80 for wide-release movies, 40 for limited-release movies, 20 for TV shows), including 5 reviews from Top Critics.

This movie tackles the subject of Honor killing in the Islam religion. Luckily, it's more about running away and showing compassion than about killing a girl that had been raped. By the end of this movie, you will love Meryum and be sympathetic towards the man tasked with executing her. Surprisingly good movie.

Ignore the pans from the sad-sack critics below who think anything that isn't a miserable tragedy is "too conveniently resolved" or "unabashed melodrama" or "hokey". I personally was so thankful to see a movie taking place in a nation I've never visited, a film NOT set in LA, NYC or London, and I did not have to see a tightly-dressed starlet wearing 7 inch-high spike heels. When filmmakers can go anywhere in the world and bring back a fresh vision for us, most of our films are set in crime-ridden streets of western cities or in corporate board rooms. Are we westerners really so unimaginative?

I liked the story, found it refreshingly natural, although outside my life experience, with twists of plot which made it seem spontaneous and fresh!

I understood this movie as an analogy for the bible's idea of the start of the ma-woman relationship. Cemal, the man, Adan, raised with ideas imposed to him by the patriarch Ali Riza, which is later revealed to be evil. These ideas are opposed by Irfan, a mysterious white haired/bearded man, which happens to be a "professor". In the middle of this conflict is Meryem, the woman, Eve, who has no option but to suffer her faith among these forces pulling in all directions. Cemal loves Meryem but is ashamed of her "sin". Ali Riza pushes on Cemal to victimize Meryem. Irfan consoles Meryem and teaches her as does Cemal. Cemal is confused about Irfan and is prone to attack him.In the end life goes on. Good triumphs over evil but reality ensues. What is next for Meryem once they leave paradise is nothing but a life of oppression by Cemal. Irfan will no longer help them both, but will be in them with prayers. Cemal will have to learn by himself to differentiate Irfan's teachings from Ali Riza's upbringing. Meryem will have to find her own way to emancipate from Cemal, or they will be unhappy for the rest of their lives.

THE STORY OF THE FILM IS VERY EXCITING? WHEN LIFE BECOMES VERY CRUEL AND UNFAIR? YOU THINK THAT EVERY THING AROUND YOU IS RUNNING AGAINST YOU. CHASTITY, VIOLENCE, WOMEN TREATMENT ARE ALL AMONG THE IMPORTANT ISSUES WHICH DISTINGUISH THE LIFE OF THE CURRENT PERIOD

Overall I thought this movie was pretty decent, but it was lacking something. By the end, it almost turned into a really good movie, but it just didn't get there. Maybe it's because the story was a little bit on the dull side and the acting was lacking in some parts. Plus there's no real connection or chemistry between the leads. Cemal spends the entire movie treating Meryem like crap and at the end he just says he loves here. And he doesn't even say it to the girl. Talk about anticlimatic. I think there was a really good movie here but it isn't as well developed as it should've been, but it's not a bad movie.

As movies go, this movie is disheveled and often amateurish. Often feels like a documentary. This is probably the reason I found myself crying while watching, and sobbing a day after I watched it.

The idea of being raped or molested by a close family member and therefore not being able to share the trauma is real.

As an incest coach I coach people who grew up in a situation minus the honor killing. What most reviewers miss in this movie is that the surface drama is just that, the surface, all a smokescreen covering up something that we are all responsible for that most of the world over raping and molesting young girls is accepted if not condoned.

Millions of child prostitutes in Bombay. 100% of the Hungarian immigrants I have spoken with have been molested by their father, the Irish "patriarch" who uses each of his daughters...

and the fact that my mother called me a whore (I was 3 and a half years old, by the way) indicates to me that 1. Turkey and Hungary are not that different 2. that my mother, probably, was also subjected to abuse, and she projected her own bad feelings about herself to me.

Honor killing is just the surface. Suppressing the Life-Force in women, denying them their dignity and self-determination is the real issue, and that is not limited to Turkey. We live in the Dark Ages. Still.

A story about savage cultural values, patriarchal repression and injustice in a small village in Turkey, turns into a voyage of self discovery for three very different and complex characters. Masterfully filmed and covered with spectacular views of Aegean Sea coasts, the movie makes a very important point about purity being an attribute of the soul.